Beauty and the 'Ooga Booga'

By AARON CURTISS

Oct. 25, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The distinct personalities of Sony PlayStation 2 and Sega Dreamcast reveal themselves in two recent games: “Ico” for PlayStation 2 and “Ooga Booga” for Dreamcast.

The first is a ponderous, beautifully rendered adventure that sprawls across the screen and tries hard to be more than it is. The other is a crass, cartoonish romp on tropical islands in which players pummel opponents with shrunken heads.

As the year-old PS2 gains steam and the 2-year-old Dreamcast fades into oblivion, the games highlight one console’s aspirations and the other’s legacy. Sony wants PS2 to become the machine that turns video games into a mainstream pastime by appealing to consumers outside the traditional band of young male gamers. Sega, by contrast, positioned Dreamcast as the bad boy of gaming, a party machine fueled by adrenaline and testosterone.

Frankly, PS2 could use a little of Dreamcast’s mojo.

Some of the best and most creative games of the last two years have been Dreamcast titles such as “Crazy Taxi,” “Shenmue” and “Seaman.” Even a game as simple and mindless as “Ooga Booga” has its moments. Now that Sega is out of the hardware business, it has already begun churning out software for former rival Sony as well as for Nintendo and Microsoft, both of which plan to launch new consoles in November.

Meanwhile, “Ico” and “Ooga Booga” offer a glimpse of the future and a reminder of the past.

“Ico”: Simply calling “Ico” gorgeous and slobbering over its cinematic visuals misses the point. Yes, it’s one of the most richly detailed console games ever. And yes, it spreads its beauty across impossibly large spaces. But discerning players should want more from their games than pretty pictures.

That’s where “Ico” falls short. It fails to buttress good looks with sophisticated play or an engaging story. Some may find the tale of a horned boy and his mute gal pal compelling, but it’s a stretch to get too worked up over a kid who speaks gibberish and a waif who seems bent on killing herself.

“Ico” begins in a mysterious castle. A tyke with Viking-style horns--that’s right, horns--growing out of his head is dumped off by his fellow villagers to satisfy some evil spirits. He escapes from his tomb and stumbles across a girl who looks like she’s strung out on heroin. She’s stuck in a hanging cage, a prisoner of the queen who rules the castle.

Got it?

Predictably, “Ico” demands that players rescue the girl and guide her out of the castle. The task is complicated by smoky spirits bent on dragging the girl to the underworld and the fact that no one appears to have spent a dime on castle maintenance in the last 100 years. Walkways crumble underfoot and collapsed walls block escape routes.

The game degenerates quickly into a routine series of puzzles, broken up here and there by spirit attacks that the boy must fend off with a stick or a sword or his bare hands. The trick of “Ico” lies in keeping track of the girl, who tends to wander off and get in trouble. If she dies, the game’s over.

Much has been made of the visuals in “Ico.” Granted, they are stunning. Players will enjoy wandering around the castle gawking at intricate stonework, marveling at the way torchlight dances on a wall or squinting into hazy sunshine.

Like the prettiest girl at the prom, the graphics in “Ico” go a long way toward covering up some of its fundamental problems. In short, the game tries too hard to come across as dreamy and esoteric when it’s really a simple puzzle quest.

“Ooga Booga”: Set on a string of tropical islands, “Ooga Booga” is the sort of game best played with a few friends and a few of those drinks with the umbrellas on top. Probably not the first choice among Nobel laureates, “Ooga Booga” aims squarely at a crowd that thinks there’s nothing funnier than a guy running around frantically with his pants on fire.

Essentially a spinoff of such group annihilation games as “Quake III Arena” and “Unreal Tournament,” “Ooga Booga” tones down some of the graphic violence and replaces it with cartoonish combat.

Players run around islands casting spells on each other. Or, players can resort to the more reliable use of shrunken heads as projectiles or hijack wild boars to trample adversaries.

Sega designed “Ooga Booga” as an online game, but a far more enjoyable way to play it is in split-screen mode with a few friends. The action is so fast and so comical that it’s a waste not to see a buddy’s expression as her character runs to cool his flaming rump in the ocean.

Ah, high humor.

Aaron Curtiss is editor of Tech Times. He can be reached at aaron.curtiss@latimes.com.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Skinny “Ico”

* Genre:Adventure

* Platform: Sony PlayStation 2

* Price: $50

* Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

* ESRB* rating: Teen

* The good: Beautiful visuals

* The bad: Shallow play

* Bottom line: Worth a look